During one of the boring NRL offseason months, I received a phone call from my older brother, who like myself – is a Manly Sea Eagle tragic.

When I was younger, I used to constantly ask him about any new players coming through, and he would always fill in on some young up and comer, or a new signing to give me that ray of hope I was asking for.

Now a day, my brother resides outside of Australia, and relies on my input for any Manly/NRL news.

“Who’s this Brenton Lawrence dude that we just signed?” he asked

 “Who?” I replied – The name didn’t register right away.

“Brenton Lawrence. He used to play for the Titans and apparently he’s a decent player. Fans are raving on about it on twitter”.  My brother said.

I quickly recalled a moment during the season in which a player, who I referred to as the “Russian Soldier” ran through the Bulldogs defense and scored a wonderful solo try. At the time I didn’t know who he was, but I remembered his frame and once I ‘Google imaged’ the player’s name, I was able to rehash the moment to my brother.

“I don’t know much about the guy, however, what I do know is that he’s a pretty big dude and quick for his size”, I would go on to say.

Even with that assessment, both my brother and I weren’t too excited about some of the recruits Manly had brought in. I wasn’t confident that we could get the best out of players that were unwanted at other clubs – a trademark of the previous coach – Des Hasler.

Under the Hasler regime, the club pride itself on recruiting players based on a CVR rating – the ‘Moneyball’ system now being used by most American professional teams. However, this system – created by Will Badel– departed to the Canterbury Bulldogs along with Des at the end of the 2011 premiership-winning season.

Times had changed, and Manly were now cap tied with an aging roster, and a coach who was still finding his way. It didn’t help matters that the former mentor – Des had made it extremely difficult for his protégé by back loading a number of contracts and subsequently compromising Manly’s position to enter the free agency market.

This is where Geoff began to compile his army of misfits, led by Justin Horo, Brenton Lawrence, also include backrower Tom Symonds, fullback Peta Hiku and interchange David Gower.

All five have featured in the finals series, and four are most likely to be involved in this Sunday’s decider against the Roosters.  But the players have their own story and we’ll analyse how each are now in position to content for the 2013 premiership.

 Justin Horo.

Justin joins a long list of former Parramatta Eels let go by the club, only to succeed somewhere else. To make matters worse, rumour has it that a fight outside a New Zealand pub between the grandfathers of Horo and Kearny may have been the reason why the former Eel mentor chose not to play Justin.

Whatever the reason was, Horo found himself without a club, and if it weren’t for a chance meeting with the former Eels coach – Brad Arthur in Bali – Horo could’ve possibly been lost to the NRL forever.

Manly assistant coach Dave Penna recently revealed to the RLW

“It’s actually funny that Brad (Arthur) and I were on holiday in Bali and it was just coincidental that Justin was there as well”

By replacing Kangaroo Tony Williams on the Sea Eagles’ left edge, the backrower not only out did the $600,000 Canterbury signing in almost every conceivable statistic, but running what insiders will tell you are “far better lines than T-Rex ever did”.

Recently, Justin was rewarded with a contract extension, which will have him in the Northern Peninsula for a further two years. But before that ink has the chance to dry, the $50,000 signing will be given the unenviable task of containing the game’s biggest draw card at the moment – Sonny Bill Williams – an assignment that Horo was able to successfully complete in their first finals encounter.

Not bad for a guy who not so long ago was unemployed and chilling in Bali.

Brenton Lawrence.

When I referred to Brenton Lawrence as the “Russian soldier”, I didn’t understand the irony behind that description yet.

Ten years ago, Lawrence informed leading NRL manager that he was quitting the Raiders in order to follow in the footsteps of his father by joining the air force.

However, he continued to drift in the Canberra local competition where he became captain-coach of the Woden Valley Rams before moving up to the Gold Coast to play Queensland Cup for Burleigh Bears.

“After I played for Australian schoolboys in the centres I got moved into the front-row and it maybe took me a while to get used to that role,” Lawrence told AAP.

Lawrence’s opportunity at the Titans came after he trained for free in the off-season. He was in and out of the roster for the next two seasons until he was finally granted a release by the Queensland club.

But Queenslanders haven’t given up on him fully with Mal Menninga recently claiming that he is a legitimate option for the Queensland Maroons team.

“I think he has been up there with the buys of the season to be honest with you”. Menninga told the Daily Telegraph.

And now, the “Russian solder will have a chance at a premiership ring when he takes on the might of the Roosters pack on Sunday.

Tom Symonds

The signing of Tom Symonds brought about another one of those enquiries from my brother.

“We’ve signed some backrower from the Roosters who is being compared to Craig Fitzgibbon”. My brother enthused.

But unlike Brenton Lawrence, my knowledge on Tom was not limited to one barnstorming highlight against the Bulldogs.

“Yeah, he’s a good player, however, he’s always injured and we need someone with a bit more size”. I replied, with my cynical tone.

I knew of Symonds’ talent, but I was worried why the Roosters would be releasing their only local junior right on the eve of the season.

“Did he have an injury that we didn’t know about?”

I had my doubts, it’s fair to say, but they were soon put to rest when Symonds was rushed into the side after only one game in the NSW cup. With only two days preparation –Symonds’ two try effort against the Vulcans resulted in an immediate call up into the first grade side the following week.

Steering clear of injury has allowed Symonds to excel this year, playing 18 games and crossing the line for 5 tries and to add one final ironic twist – he credits former teammate Anthony Minichiello for helping him stay on the park.

“I started a change in my diet after speaking to Mini,” he recently told the AAP.

“He’d been through a horrible period with his back and had a whole transition in terms of what he ate.

“He shared a lot of that with me and it was a bit slow at first, but it helped me put on more body mass … and that’s certainly helped me steer clear of injury this year.

And hopefully, the boy from Paddington can come back to bite the hand that once fed him.

Peta Hiku

The signing of Peta Hiku was brought to my attention by someone claiming to be his ‘uncle’ on the Silvertails forum– out of all places.

He claimed that his nephew had told him he was signing with the Sea Eagles, and he assured us that Peta would be a great acquisition for the club.

A little ‘bias’ I thought, nevertheless, it required some research and I was able to find out some interesting facts.

• Peta was not on the original Warriors Toyota cup squad, but injuries to some key outside backs forced the club to bring him back in.
• He started off playing on the wing, was then moved to fullback after some strong performances.
• Hard runner of the ball and a great kick returner.
• Was awarded the under 20s ‘Player of the Year’ by the Warriors for his consistent play during the season.

Kind of resembles how his debut Manly season went.  Which is incredible when you think he was signed for just $70,000, and that the 20-year-old lives In a Sea Eagles share house, while also saving up bonuses so that he can move his family to Sydney. Part of the rise of the schoolboy rugby star whom “basically fell into league”.

“It was when my older brother William had a serious car accident,” Hiku recently told League Central.

“We were living in Gisborne at the time but, because my brother needed such extensive treatment in Auckland, our family just up and moved there.

“Up until that point I’d played rugby. But in Auckland, the only people I knew were my cousins and they played league. So that was it … one day I just went and had a run with them.”

Unfortunately for Hiku though, his man of the match performance against the Roosters in the first final will not be enough to earn him a call up into the Grand Final.

“There’s a lot of people that want a starting spot but now that I think of it … it’s been really tough in the last two weeks,” Hiku recently told stuff.co.nz.

“I don’t really want to wear my body out too early so it’s good to back up for him at the moment.”

Hiku is contracted to the end of next season, and although 28-year-old Stewart still has three years to run on his contract, his hamstrings may allow Peta the chance to remain and forge a career at the club.

“Hopefully the club decides to sign me up again. I’d love to stay here,” he said, reflecting on a season that exceeded expectations.

“It’s a bit of a shock. I only expected to play one or two games. Even that was big for me.”